Right. The Reality is that the US is at the very bottom of developed (OECD) countries, and is often more comparable to developing countries than developed ones.
>Why would immigrants influx into the United States with no hope of improving their economic situation?
You are correct that people want to influx into the US from very poor undeveloped countries (3rd world). You'll find that hundreds of millions of people living in developed (OECD) countries have no interest in living in the US.
If you want meaningful and useful comparisons, compare the US to developed (OECD) countries. There is nothing to be gained from comparing a major league team to a team of beginners.
I think Silicon Valley would clearly show that’s false.
But there is also the technical and professional factors, most of the big tech firms are US based, and even if these are international companies, a large chunk of their man power and all key decision making is US based.
That being said, working for a (formerly) French company that was acquired by a large US tech company, I saw very few people taking the opportunity to relocate in the US when we were acquired, maybe 3 or 4 at most on a work force of ~100. And personally I don't see myself migrating to the US.
I'm saying the extreme majority of people who want to immigrate to the US are from developing/undeveloped countries, and likely a very large percentage of people who actually make it are also from developing/undeveloped countries.
* - Basic needs expand with progress. But things like food, shelter, clothes and education are pretty ingrained now.
From the NY Times article this article critiques: 'A prime example is their claim that “America is the richest country” in the OECD, “but we’re also the poorest, with a whopping 18% poverty rate—closer to Mexico than Western Europe.”'
The scale of poverty in Mexico is much higher than in the U.S. And higher still in central America. This "3rd World U.S." narrative is often repeated, but as the author shows it has no basis in reality.